N Korea hints at nuclear test after UN sanctions

North Korea insists the December launch was for purely peaceful purposes.

Reuters/KCNA

North Korea has reacted defiantly to a new round of United Nations sanctions, hinting that it will carry out a nuclear test and ruling out any talks on denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

"We will take physical actions aimed at expanding and strengthening our self-defensive military forces, including nuclear deterrence," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

The statement came hours after the 15-member UN Security Council unanimously voted to expand existing sanctions against North Korea for a banned rocket launch last month.

The resolution said the council "deplores the violations" by North Korea of its previous resolutions and threatened "significant action" if the North stages a nuclear test.

The resolution added six North Korean entities, including Pyongyang's space agency, the Korean Committee for Space Technology, and the man heading it, Paek Chang-ho, to an already existing UN blacklist.

It also added three other individuals to the blacklist.

The firms and individuals will face an international asset freeze, while Mr Paek and the others blacklisted will also face a global travel ban.

North Korea was already banned under Security Council resolutions from developing nuclear and missile technology.

But it has been working steadily on its nuclear test site, possibly in preparation for a third nuclear test, satellite images show.

The United States had wanted to punish North Korea for the rocket launch with a resolution that imposed new sanctions, but Beijing rejected that option.

China is the North's only major diplomatic ally, although it agreed to UN sanctions against Pyongyang after North Korea's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

December's successful long-range rocket launch, the first to put a satellite in orbit, was a coup for North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong-un.